The GFAS Carole Noon Award for Sanctuary Excellence »
We are now seeking nominations for The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries Carole Noon Award for Sanctuary Excellence. The award was created to honor outstanding contributions to the animal sanctuary field. The honor memorializes Carole Noon, Ph. D., a courageous and innovative sanctuary pioneer and champion of chimpanzees. The first award, given in 2009, was awarded posthumously to Dr. Carole Noon.
The award will be given to a sanctuary or individual who embodies and puts into practice the GFAS philosophy of vision, dedication and excellence in animal care.
Carole Noon, PhD exemplified these traits with an innovative spirit, creating solutions to overwhelming challenges; a deep knowledge of those entrusted to the care of the sanctuary; and a dedication to animals and a determination to succeed that manifested in a commitment to ensure humane and responsible care for the lifetime of each of the sanctuary residents.
Nominations
Nominations are being solicited through the end of July, 2010 . Please state in 500 words or less how the nominee (sanctuary or individual) exemplifies the traits listed above. Send nominations to 
Applications are reviewed and a recommendation is made by the GFAS Award Committee, which includes a representative of the past recipient. Both the Sanctuary Director and the Sanctuary Board must understand and be comfortable with the publicity implications that come with the award for a recipient associated with the sanctuary. The final responsibility for selection rests with the GFAS Board of Directors. The award ceremony location and time depends upon opportunities available that year.
The winning sanctuary or sanctuary director receives a distinctive engraved plaque, and a monetary donation to the sanctuary.
Where are the Funders? »
Creators of an animal grantmaking database just finished the analysis of their 2006 survey on where foundation dollars to help animals were disbursed…and animal sanctuaries came in dead last as recipients. As a former funder, who was part of disbursing those funds in 2006, I can tell you at least one reason sanctuaries received so little of the funding pie: Foundations perceive funding sanctuaries as risky business. Please see my note to foundations and charities for further explanation.
I am truly confident that the GFAS accreditation process will help funders feel more secure about giving to sanctuaries. It is one of the many ways GFAS intends to help attract new funding to sanctuaries.
I have also had more than one funder tell me that the grant proposals from animal sanctuaries are some of the most poorly written that they receive. Could it be you are busy with other things, like, oh, I don’t know, maybe caring for the animals?! I understand your time constraints. That is why I urge you to send volunteers, even virtual volunteers (advertise for them on volunteermatch.com), to attend one of the free GFAS webinars on grant writing. Some of the comments from sanctuary attendees and their volunteers to date have been:
- “The session was wonderful and I enjoyed it. I got so much useful information I am swimming in it!”
- “Your experience as both a funder and a grant seeker is invaluable, especially to those like myself who are really new to all of this. I look forward to going over my notes and your slides again. I am determined that 2009 will be a successful grant writing and receiving year for us!”
- “I wanted to thank you again for inviting me to your webinar. There was a lot of helpful information. I felt that you were very personable and easy to talk to.”
So please do come join us, and we will try to remove the mystery from grant writing!
